Horror story: Braking Bad

Horror story: Braking Bad

Article By Matters Of Testing, mattersoftesting.blog.gov.uk.

March 23rd, 2016

Here are some examples of brake defects that could all have serious road safety implications.

Gary of Autocare Services, Exeter, sent us this picture of a brake caliper on a Corsa.

The car apparently had new brake pads fitted by a friend which had been in use for around 3 weeks.It looks like, after fitting the brake pads, their friend forgot to refit the caliper retaining bolts. Thankfully the caliper continued to provide some braking effect but you do wonder how the driver failed to notice something was wrong.

Just cutting it

Here’s another DIY repair sent in by James from Fife. We don’t know why someone felt the need to cut the brake pipe, but they’ve clearly had more than one go at it.James says “excessively chafed doesn’t cut it somehow”; maybe not, but it’s still an MOT failure.

The MOT inspection manual isn’t written with this type of deliberate damage in mind but Reason for Rejection ‘A rigid brake pipe excessively chafed, corroded or damaged’’ would cover this.

Corroded brake pipes

Finally a more common sight for testers that shows low mileage doesn’t guarantee that all is well.

This picture of a 1998 Fiesta sent in by D & M Motors Ltd, Little Lever, had only 43,000 miles on the clock when presented for test. On inspection the rear brake pipes, including unions and brake hose ferrules, were heavily corroded and leaking fluid under pressure.

It goes to show that the lack of regular maintenance can result in potentially dangerous defects just as much as badly carried out repairs.